1
Jack Danner sat in the waiting room of the Altarian Trade Commission. He had his trade kit in his briefcase. He had his personal documentation in his pocket. And he had the responsibility of opening up Earth’s trade with the Altarians riding on his unprepared shoulders.
He’d only been with Earth’s Extraterrestrial Trade Division for two months. Before that he’d been strictly Earth bound. Hell, he’d never left the country! He’d been a plumber, a truck driver, a bouncer, a landscaper, a wedding planner, a cook, a hospital orderly, a cattle wrangler, a computer repair technician, a filing clerk, a welder, a park ranger, a sanitation engineer, a convenience store clerk, and for fun he was a long distance marathon runner. He realized he was the proverbial ‘Jack-of-all-Trades’ in a way. It was almost poetic that he would end up as a Trade Representative.
With the opening of the Interplanetary Gate Network and the influx of alien visitors and new technologies, jobs on Earth had become more and more scarce. When he’d applied for what he thought was a sales position he found himself being thoroughly grilled by a tag team of psychologists who were attempting to discover if he had any latent xenophobia. When they ruled that out and a number of other mental gotchas he and the other candidates were put through some of the oddest and most challenging physical endurance testing he’d ever endured. It was a damn good thing he’d kept himself in shape as he witnessed one after another of the other candidates fall short during the final trials until there was only him. His trainers were rather distraught about that.
Finally he found himself fast tracked through a sales negotiation course and a diplomatic relations course. What it all had to do with a sales job he had no clue but a job was a job and this one didn’t have him handling hazardous waste down at the power plant (his only other option at the time). At this point he’d put up with almost anything to get a steady paycheque. Almost.
After all the hoopla involved with preparing him for his new position he was informed that he’d be required to travel to other worlds to negotiate trade agreements with their Trade Commissioners. He was stunned by the scope of the selling job he’d have to do and his first assignment might be his last if the scuttlebutt he’d heard before he’d departed Earth was true. The Altarians were the pinnacle achievement for planetary trade agreements. Every other planet in the Interplanetary Gate Network tried to open trade with the Altarians and failed. They were one of the largest civilizations in the network spanning dozens of planets and billions of citizens. To open that market was to gain economic stability for generations.
Jack looked down the row of chairs in the long narrow hall and saw only two other representatives before him. The skeletal Deen-Diin and a small round ball of fur which was the representative of Wuu.
The trade representatives went in the door next to the receptionist and exited from a different door out of sight to those waiting their turn. All trade representative had to sign a waiver giving the Altarians permissions to wipe the memories of the meeting from their minds. The negotiations were secret. Either you succeeded and your planet was granted access to the huge market or you went home empty handed with no clue why. If you didn’t sign the waiver, well… there’s the exit.
The Deen-Diin rep was called and looked disdainfully at Jack as he entered the door. Yeah, good luck to you too buddy, Jack thought. He knew he had at least another hour to wait before it was his turn and he was bored so he stood up and wandered over to the window. He looked out over the beautiful grounds of the parkland around the Trade Commission headquarters on Altaria. The whole planet was like this. Cultured, manicured, pristine, and beautiful. Much like the Altarians themselves. He could see groups of them playing in the park below and watched their graceful movements with interest. He’d met a number of them on his way from Earth. The males were smaller than the females and apparently rare. The females were fairly small themselves, the shortest being 4′ 10″ and the tallest reaching 5′ 8″.
Gentle in nature they resembled Satyrs of ancient Greek mythology. Petite with cloven hooved feet and hands with two strong fingers and opposable thumbs on both sides. They bodies were covered with a felt like fur which ranged in color from blond to chocolate brown. Over this they wore gossamer flowing gowns. Their heads were humanoid but their eyes were twice as large as a human’s, had diagonal pupils, and the lids had long lashes. Their ears were long, pointed, expressively mobile, and typically projected horizontally. Sometimes they wore tiny gold rings along the lower edge of their ears which would ring faintly when movement bumped them together. They had slim noses and wide, black lipped mouths. As a race of herbivores they had beautiful white teeth with a definite lack of pointy fangs.
Altarians typically had longer fur running from their foreheads, over their scalps and down the center of their backs, like a mane, though some kept it trimmed short. It was usually darker in color than their body coloring.
On his trip through the Network Gates Jack had been exposed to quite a number of alien races and the battery of psychological tests his bosses put him through to assess his xenophobic response now made sense. Luckily he had no issues at all with the variety of body shapes, sizes, skin types, languages, and smells of any of the races he’d met. Now that he was on Altaria Jack realized that of all the aliens he’d met, the Altarians were one of the loveliest. There were other physically beautiful races but it was the Altarian’s calm and peaceful spirit that attracting him the most. Truly beautiful from the inside out.
He stood at the window watching the scene below until he heard a slight chime from the reception desk which he’d begun to think meant it was approaching the time to send in the next candidate. He wasn’t positive what the chimes meant and there hadn’t really been any definite pattern but his bored mind found its fun where it could.
He glanced over to the receptionist and caught her staring at him. She quickly looked away but he knew she’d been checking him out as he’d been watching the Altarians below. He wandered over to her desk and saw she was getting a little flustered. He thought it looked cute on her.
“Hi,” he said when he reached her desk.
She glanced up and smiled at him. “Hello,” she said nervously.
“My name’s Jack but you probably already know that,” he said with a grin.
“It is a fortuitous name!” she replied.
“Really? How so?” he asked. He’d take any edge he could get for this job.
“In the Altarian language ‘Jakk’ is the word for good,” she said looking up at him earnestly.
“That is fortuitous! I like the way you say it too! I think I’d like to hear you say it some more,” he said looking into her eyes which grew wider as he leaned in slightly. A bright pink tongue darted out to moisten her lips and he unconsciously mirrored her action only slower. “Can you say my name again?” he said quietly.
“Jakk,” she breathed keeping her eyes on his.NôvelDrama.Org © content.
Damn, he was really starting to get hard talking to this lovely lady. “I like that. What’s your name?” he asked.
“Leffera,” she said.
“That’s a beautiful name! Hello Leffera,” he said holding his hand out. She blinked at his outstretched hand then placed hers in it. Her skin was incredibly soft as his thumb gently massaged the back of her hand as he held it. “It’s a pleasure to meet someone as lovely as you!”
He suddenly realized he had no idea if he was treading on any social taboos. For all he knew there was some caste system or maybe she was married! He certainly wasn’t picking up any negative signals but he wasn’t on Earth anymore. He gently released his grip on her hand though his thumb continued to stroke and she took a few seconds to release him as she seemed to be a little mesmerized by the sensation. Her tongue darted across her lips once more and it was all Jack could do not to lean over the desk and chase that tongue with his own. She seemed to read the intent in his eyes and her eyes grew even wider. Jack saw Leffera’s gown was beginning to show her excitement as her stiffening nipples pressed against the taught fabric. He counted six before the desk’s surface blocked his sight. Not taking her eyes from his she suddenly reached forward and tapped her console in a few places.
Jack’s comm buzzed and he pulled it up to glance at it. He’d been rescheduled before the Wuu representative. He glanced over at the Wuu and saw it was looking at its comm as well. It shrieked in outrage and started rolling towards him. Leffera stood up and made a screeching sound. The Wuu immediately stopped and went back to its original position.
The Altarian touched her console a few more times and a second later another female stepped through the door and walked over to take Leffera’s place. The new receptionist was smaller in stature than Leffera and slightly darker in color. She stared at Jack and glanced at the other female and said something quietly. Leffera smiled at her replacement and gestured for Jack to get his kit and to follow her.
None of the other representatives had been escorted through the doorway. He was starting to worry that he’d really screwed up but all he could do was follow along.
Beyond the door was a long hallway. He followed Leffera towards the room he saw at the end. Her hips swayed as she walked. Jack couldn’t help but notice. In fact he had a difficult time looking anywhere else. While it was a natural aspect of her gait it was damn sexy too. She briefly glanced over her shoulder and caught him looking and something flared in her eyes. The sway became just a little more pronounced.